Alcoholics anonymous

Bob in Mayand the men shared their stories with one another. The two began to work on how to best approach alcoholics and began trying to help men recover from alcoholism. The idea for the book developed at least as early aswhen Bill W. Bob realized their system had helped over 40 men stay sober for more than 2 years.

Within days, Wilson admitted himself to the Charles B. Towns Hospital after drinking four beers on the way—the last alcohol he ever drank.

The following are the original twelve steps as published by Alcoholics Anonymous:

Alcoholics Anonymous | Learn About The 12 Steps of AA

AA program participants follow a set of recovery steps to achieve and maintain abstinence from alcohol.

Under the care of William Duncan Silkworth an early benefactor of AAWilson's detox included the deliriant belladonna. Wilson's early efforts to help others become sober were ineffective, prompting Silkworth to suggest that Wilson place less stress on religion and more on "the science" of treating alcoholism.

Wilson's first success came during a business trip to Akron, Ohio, where he was introduced to Robert Smith, a surgeon and Oxford Group member who was unable to stay sober. After thirty days of working with Wilson, Smith drank his last drink on 10 JuneAlcoholics anonymous date marked by AA for its anniversaries.

AA Historian Ernest Kurtz described the split: Men [no women were members yet] who had proven over and over again, by extremely painful experience, that they could not get sober on their own had somehow become more powerful when two or three of them worked on their common problem.

This, then—whatever it was that occurred among them—was what they could accept as a power greater than themselves.

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They did not need the Oxford Group. And just as importantly, we learned from them what not to do. AA's tradition of anonymity was a reaction to the publicity-seeking practices of the Oxford Group, as well as AA's wish to not promote, Wilson said, "erratic public characters who through broken anonymity might get drunk and destroy confidence in us.

Informally known as "The Big Book" with its first pages virtually unchanged since the editionit suggests a twelve-step program in which members admit that they are powerless over alcohol and need help from a "higher power".

They seek guidance and strength through prayer and meditation from God or a Higher Power of their own understanding; take a moral inventory with care to include resentments; list and become ready to remove character defects; list and make amends to those harmed; continue to take a moral inventory, pray, meditate, and try to help other alcoholics recover.

The second half of the book, "Personal Stories" subject to additions, removal and retitling in subsequent editionsis made of AA members' redemptive autobiographical sketches.

Eventually he gained formal adoption and inclusion of the Twelve Traditions in all future editions of the Big Book. Twelve Traditions A regional service center for Alcoholics Anonymous AA says it is "not organized in the formal or political sense", [25] and Bill Wilson called it a "benign anarchy ".

Each group is a self-governing entity with AA World Services acting only in an advisory capacity.

Alcoholics Anonymous - Wikipedia

AA is served entirely by alcoholics, except for seven "nonalcoholic friends of the fellowship" of the member AA Board of Trustees. It does not accept donations from people or organizations outside of AA. In keeping with AA's Eighth Tradition, the Central Office employs special workers who are compensated financially for their services, but their services do not include traditional "12th Step" work of working with alcoholics in need.

It also maintains service centers, which coordinate activities such as printing literature, responding to public inquiries, and organizing conferences.

The sponsor should preferably have experience of all twelve of the steps, be the same sex as the sponsored person, and refrain from imposing personal views on the sponsored person. AA shares the view that acceptance of one's inherent limitations is critical to finding one's proper place among other humans and God.

The Big Book (Alcoholics Anonymous) - Wikipedia

Such ideas are described as "Counter-Enlightenment" because they are contrary to the Enlightenment 's ideal that humans have the capacity to make their lives and societies a heaven on earth using their own power and reason. Rudy and Arthur L. Greil found that for an AA member to remain sober a high level of commitment is necessary.

This commitment is facilitated by a change in the member's worldview. To help members stay sober AA must, they argue, provide an all-encompassing worldview while creating and sustaining an atmosphere of transcendence in the organization. To be all-encompassing AA's ideology places an emphasis on tolerance rather than on a narrow religious worldview that could make the organization unpalatable to potential members and thereby limit its effectiveness.

AA's emphasis on the spiritual nature of its program, however, is necessary to institutionalize a feeling of transcendence. A tension results from the risk that the necessity of transcendence, if taken too literally, would compromise AA's efforts to maintain a broad appeal.

As this tension is an integral part of AA, Rudy and Greil argue that AA is best described as a quasi-religious organization. Local AA directories list a variety of weekly meetings. Those listed as "closed" are available to those with a self professed "desire to stop drinking," which cannot be challenged by another member on any grounds.Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an international mutual aid fellowship whose stated purpose is to enable its members to "stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety." It was founded in by Bill Wilson and Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio.

A twelve-step program is a set of guiding principles outlining a course of action for recovery from addiction, compulsion, or other behavioral problems. Originally proposed by Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) as a method of recovery from alcoholism, [1] the Twelve Steps were first published in the book Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More.

24/7 AA Chat for anyone who thinks they may want to stop drinking. Chat anonymously online with members of Alcoholics Anonymous whether you are already a member, or just want to learn more about how to stop drinking and recover from alcoholism.